Special-education students spread seasonal cheer, and...

1of8Ayana Norwood sings at the special education Access program’s sing-along concert on Monday in San Francisco.Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

2of8San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott sings at the special education Access program’s sing-along concert at The Arc on Monday in San Francisco.Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

3of8Paraeducator Sunghye Lee (middle right) plays the violin with a rhythm assist from Josue Colindres (right) at the sing-along by special education students.Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

4of8Paraeducator Linden Cady (left) plays drums with Matt Kyi (middle) at the special education Access program’s sing-along concert at The Arc on Monday in San Francisco.Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

5of8Vincent Matthews (middle) takes a selfie at the holiday sing-along concert at Arc in San Francisco.Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

6of8Jen Kabbabe (left) and Heidi Seretan (middle) play at the holiday sing-along in San Francisco by special education high school and above students.Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

7of8Paraeducator Sunghye Lee plays the violin next to Josue Colindres (middle) and John Rosen (right) at the sing-along concert by San Francisco special education high school and above.Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

8of8Sara Sandoval (middle) participates in Bollywood dancing at a sing-along concert Monday in San Francisco by special education high school and above SFUSD students.Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle

It’s not easy keeping track of how many lords are leaping, but the special-education students of the Access program in San Francisco nailed it for the 10th year in a row.

Their annual holiday sing-along concert Monday seemed to make all of South of Market jingle like the things on one-horse open sleighs.

“I just feel more comfortable when I sing,” said Karina Duran, 20, one of the student performers. “It gives me confidence.”

Every year, the students put on red sweaters and red Rudolph noses and invite the community to join in, sing a few tunes and learn about the program that’s part of San Francisco Unified School District. It helps special-education students make their own way in the city in the years after high school.

Duran, when she’s not calling the calling birds and the French hens, takes tickets at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Other students work at public service jobs all over town.

“The program helps me get around,” Duran said. “It makes me feel independent. I learn how to ride the Muni. I’m 20 years old. You can’t ride a school bus forever.”

For this year’s concert, about 150 folks showed up to belt out the tunes, including school district Superintendent Vincent Matthews, who thumped expertly on a set of bongo drums, and Police Chief Bill Scott, who didn’t need the printed lyrics to know how many swans were swimming, and former state Sen. Mark Leno, who did.

The Access program, said Matthews, “gives students a lift up to help them do what they do well.”

Program director Heidi Seretan said her curriculum is independence, which is at least as important as anything else a kid picks up at school. She started the sing-along when her program was based at the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, but it quickly outgrew the school library. Now the program operates out of the The Arc center for adults with developmental disabilities at 11th and Howard streets.

The song lineup — Frosty, Rudolph and the maids a-milking — never changes but the young people in the program do, going on to hold down jobs and apartments.

“Anybody can conquer anything, disability or not,” said Joey Bechelli, 19, one of the sing-along emcees.

Bechelli, when he isn’t passing out red Rudolph noses, helps care for the police horses at their Golden Gate Park stable. It’s fun, he said, even sweeping out the stalls.

“Overcoming my fears, standing up for my rights, choosing where and when I go places,” he said. “That’s what you learn.”

Chronicle staff writer Steve Rubenstein first joined The Chronicle reporting staff in 1976. He has been a metro reporter, a columnist, a reviewer and a feature writer. He left the staff in 2009 to teach elementary school and returned to the staff in 2015. He is married, has a son and a daughter and lives in San Francisco. He is a cyclist and a harmonica player, occasionally at the same time.